The Prodigy Poker Player

August 29, 2017

We hear tales all the time of incredible feats, but when it comes to Poker there are some that are more surprising than others. This true story is one of them!

When people think of the beautiful and spiritual country of India, the last thing they think of is that it is the home of a young gambling prodigy. But 8 year old Aashish Nanak has turned that notion on its head.

With the support of his impoverished family, and an uncle you probably wish you had, Aashish managed to win a $500 000 poker tournament. In a country where the average salary for labour is less than $3 a day, the family has only praise for their son.

Unfortunately the poker site where he won the cash refused to pay out his win, and the case was brought before a New Delhi court.

The Family Dilemma

According to the boy’s mother, she was working at a hotel as a cleaner trying to support her family on her meagre salary and whatever other odd jobs she could find to supplement their income. Aashish would accompany her to work and she would keep him occupied with cartoons on a computer that was meant for the staff. She soon noticed that Aashish was a natural on the computer and would browse and play games by himself.

At age six the young man was exploring online poker sites and actually winning small amounts of money. Since the poker sites paid out in dollars, the family could make modest improvements to their quality of life.

Budding Poker player Aashish found the most support in his uncle. He set up a PayPal account and Poker account for the young player. Whether the uncle set up the account specifically for his young ward or whether he already had the account going and finally found a convenient way to reveal his hidden poker gaming, we will never know.

The Legal Case For The Casino

After the life changing sum that the 8 year old prodigy won in his first ever poker tournament was denied to the family, they felt they had to act, and took the case to court.

The court heard testimony from the mother, who stated that the online casino did not tell them the boy could not play for real money. She goes on to say that the staff of the casino were well aware of the boy playing in the poker games, and they even had a nickname for him!

Underage real money gaming at an online casino is illegal and casinos do have the right to suspend a player’s account if they do not adhere to the rules of the site. In this case however, it will be up to the Indian courts to decide whether the Poker prodigy will get his winnings, or if his family will walk away empty handed.